Thursday, December 17, 2009

Announcers Bias

If you watch an NBA game on one of the big networks - ESPN, TNT or ABC, they have to be neutral for the most part (I believe). They can't appear to be rooting for one particular team or player. They have to give their thoughts and opinions which shouldn't be biased (for the most part). However, if your watching a feed that is from that team's place, it will of course be totally for the home team. This is fair and understandable. I get a little kick in listening to these various home town feeds because you get an understanding of how biased thoughts affect fact or common sense. In fact, its so funny to see how outlandish some of these opinions are. For example, the Lakers game I was watching was a Milwaukee feed. Therefore, the guys were of course rooting for everything Bucks. In one part of the game I thought the analyst was going to have a seizure yelling at what he stated was a CLEAR lane violation by Ron Artest. Looking at the replay it was clearly NOT the case, and the correct call was made against the Bucks. They showed the replay only once (LOL, i wonder why, maybe it was obvious he was wrong). The fact that they are rooting for the Bucks also have them more animated and yelling at everything. I heard a "Woo!" what seemed like almost every played toward the end of the game for every way they scored a point. However, it was not a "Woo!" in the sense of "yes we scored", which would make sense to me. It was a "Woo" as if it was the most amazing play ever, even if it was a basic pass/shot. Being a pro Kobe fan its funny to listen to how they bash him since they are pro-Bucks. By the way, I am not trying to bash the announcers for their bias in the game. In fact, for Bucks fans watching, I'm sure they appreciate it. Hey, I know I love watching pro-Laker feeds of games. The same thing happens. They get excited about Laker plays and talk about terrible calls against them. My main point is that support/rooting for a team takes fair judgement out. I try to be fair when I watch the games and say "Yea, that was a travel on Kobe" or "that was a foul by Pau". But admittedly, most of the time I think I deny because that is what happens in the moment. "Its impossible!"

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Top Sports blogs